Collections : [Bridgeport History Center, Bridgeport Public Library]

Rufus Cushman worked at City Savings Bank starting in 1949 and was heavily involved in various Bridgeport community groups including Community Chest, the Boys Club, and the Bridgeport Public Library board. This collection features a selection of correspondence, speeches, and citations from the community groups he worked with.

The collection contains dozens of newspaper clippings of advertisements for P.T. Barnum's American Museum located in New York City from 1841-1868.

The namesake of the popular flying disc, the Frisbie Pie Company was located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, from 1871 to 1958. At its height it produced some 20,000 pies per day that were delivered all over the state and indeed, the region. The family itself has been in Connecticut since the 1600s. This artificial collection contains information about the company and the family that ran it.

Born in Brooklyn in 1840, Henry Alonzo House lived most of his life in Bridgeport, dying in the city on December 17, 1930. A consummate inventor, he filed for patent after patent in diverse industries, and created the earliest known steam powered automobile in 1866. At his death, he had taken out approximately 300 patents for everything from button hole machines to paper cups to shredded wheat, reflecting diversity and ingenuity.

Featuring materials saved from his family's company, the David E. Bullard Collection of Bullard Company Materials represents a small insight into the Bullard Machine Tool Company's operations. Of particular note are the maps and patents present in the collection,

The records of Cesar Batalla et. al. v. Wheelabrator Environmental Systems, Bridgeport Resco et. al. serve as a small portion of the illegal dumpsite in Bridgeport that was known as Mount Trashmore. Located at 329 Central Avenue in the city's East End, the massive eyesore and environmental hazard began in the 1980s. After the City of Bridgeport began clean up in fall 1992, the choice of incineration became a massive concern to those who had worked hard to be rid of the trash heap. They filed a lawsuit to advocate for a better, safer method of disposal. The material in the collection documents the attempt and includes material turned over in discovery that includes key parts of the Trashmore paper trail, as well as video footage of Mt. Trashmore's removal.

Louis J. Santoianni, born June 21, 1910, loomed large over Bridgeport's labor politics from the 1940s until his retirement in 1975. This collection primarily focuses on the activities of the International United Electrical Workers Union, with newsletters heavily featured.

Sometimes credited with the first powered flight in 1901 two years before the Wrights, Gustav Whitehead's early airplanes were widely reported on by Bridgeport newspapers and national magazines. This research collection documents those early articles, along with later history has worked to understand Whitehead's early aviation feats, making it a combination of not only a history collection, but a historiography collection.

From 1982-1983, Bridgeport's Afro-American Educators' Association conducted interviews with black residents of Bridgeport as part of a project funded by the Connecticut Humanities Council. The project aims to examine the social and economic impacts on Bridgeport's African-American residents during World War I, the Depression, World War II, and the 1960s.

Best known as the director of ABCD - Action for Bridgeport Community Development – Charles B. Tisdale was a giant in Bridgeport's community. In 1976, he ran a congressional campaign for the House of Representatives, making him the first African-American in Connecticut to win the democratic nomination. While he lost the race, the work done would catch the eye of President Jimmy Carter and see Tisdale serve at a national level within the administration for four years. The collection captures the work of the campaign itself and provides a snapshot of Tisdale's extensive career.